Back to basics: Angles {Yuba City Photographer}

I started my photography adventure as a child in the 6th grade. My teacher set up a dark room in one of the janitor's supply closets at my elementary school. He had an after school club where we got to stay after and develop film. It was my first experience with "real photography" and oh how I loved it! Sadly, I wasn't able to revisit this side of my life until 2 years ago, when I signed up for a class at the community college. Throughout High School and College I loved taking pictures, but wasn't serious about it, just enjoyed using a camera and documenting things. After my daughter was born, that wasn't enough for me! I needed to get better pictures of her! I started by practicing with my cheap point and shoot camera and took decent enough pictures of her, but eventually she got too quick for my camera, and my husband convinced me to buy a DSLR. Spending that $700 dollars was tough for me! I thought I'd never need anything else photography related in my life!! (Boy was I wrong! haha!)

After getting my DSLR, I quickly learned that the camera was not going to really make that big of a difference in my pictures. It was going to have to be ME that learned how to take better pictures. $700 or not, the camera is just a piece of equipment. The beautiful pictures that I had seen coming from other people's expensive camera's were because they had talent, and a want to learn about photography. I found myself immersed in learning photography. Checked out books form the library, joined online forums where more experienced people could tell me what I was doing wrong, and started taking classes at the community college. I had finally found something that I wanted to do. I could "be a mom" and have something to myself as well!

Anyway, long story with very little to do with today's topic, which is "angles" and where to stand when you take photos. Last week, I talked about backgrounds, and paying attention to what is happening behind your subject. The angle form which you take your picture can be just as flattering or unflattering as a bunch of brightly colored, ugly toys in the background.

The first things you want to do when taking a picture of your subject is to get on their level. Of course there are times when this rule can be broken, but in general, you need to get on your knees and face your kid with the camera level to their eyes to take their picture. If you have a baby, and you're old or lazy, (or 27 weeks pregnant ahem.....) put them on a couch or a beanbag or something so you don't have to get down as far. Laying on your stomach if their down on the floor is pretty much what you're going to need to do! A bean bag or even a infant seat can be your best option here for a baby that isn't yet sitting on their own. Even those Bumbo chairs work awesome! What you don't want is to be looking down on your subject, especially from across the room. This type of angle screams "snapshot" and definitely won't be something you want to frame for later. Getting in close is another important thing to remember unless you're trying to capture the environment around them.

So, these example pictures are highly dramatized, since my 3 year old is a drama queen, but you can see the difference between when I was at her level, and when I stood above her. All it takes is getting down on your knees and getting your lens at eye level with your subject.